The Assurance Gap: why your Board’s confidence is not evidence
Every board I have sat with believes its organisation makes good decisions. Most of the time, they are right. The problem is the word “believes”. Confidence is not evidence. And the distance between the two has a name. What is the Assurance Gap? The Assurance Gap is the difference between what your organisation can actually […]
Is Your Capital Allocation Process Costing More Than It Saves?
Every organisation has a process for approving capital expenditure. Investment committees meet, business cases are tabled, and budgets are signed off. What rarely receives the same rigour is the question that precedes all of it: are the right initiatives being funded in the first place? Financial controls govern how money is spent. They say very […]
Anaplan vs APO
Anaplan is one of the most sophisticated connected planning platforms available. If your organisation uses it, you already have serious financial modelling capability. So, why let APO (Advanced Portfolio Optimisation) into the conversation? We know the instinctive response from finance teams is often: “We already have Anaplan for that.” Understandable, but maybe not fully informed. […]
Key Enterprise AI Risks for Capital-Intensive Organisations
Capital-intensive organisations are investing heavily in AI. Palantir, C3.ai, Dataiku, and Databricks, as we explored in depth in this article, are among the platforms most frequently evaluated, deployed, and expanded across utilities, infrastructure, energy, and government. ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot are being used by people in their daily and corporate life. New competitors are […]
What Is Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and Why Is It Most Frequently Used in Government Asset Management?
Government asset managers face a decision problem that financial analysis alone cannot solve. The assets they manage serve multiple purposes simultaneously: community access, public safety, environmental obligation, and long-term strategic value. When capital is limited and competing investments must be ranked, a methodology that measures only financial return will always produce an incomplete answer. Multi-Criteria […]
Google Sheets & Microsoft Excel vs APO
Almost every large organisation uses spreadsheets to govern capital investment decisions. Not because they are the right tool for the job, but because they are familiar, accessible, and already in place. The question is not whether Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful. They indisputably are. But are they fit for purpose for governing the […]
Monday.com vs APO
Monday.com is one of the most widely adopted work management platforms in the world. It is visual, intuitive, and genuinely good at keeping teams organised and projects on track. But there is a point at which organisations start asking questions Monday was never built to answer: These are the questions APO is built to answer. […]
The Analytic Hierarchy Process Explained: How Politics Can Be Removed From Capital Investment Decisions
Most organisations approach capital investment decisions with good intentions and flawed methodology. Committees are formed. Scores are assigned. Weights are applied. And the outcome often reflects the most persuasive voice in the room as much as the best available evidence. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (“AHP”) is a multi-criteria decision analysis (“MCDA”) method developed specifically to […]
Why Capital Project Prioritisation Software Beats Spreadsheets for Australian Government Agencies
Across Australian government agencies, capital investment decisions worth billions of dollars are still being made using spreadsheets. This is despite stakes often being high and decisions complex. Why? Because spreadsheets are familiar, accessible, and have always been there. The problem is not the intention behind these processes. Most organisations approach capital planning with genuine rigour […]
Best Financial Planning and Budgeting Tools in 2026 Compared
The market for financial planning and budgeting software has never been more mature. Platforms like Anaplan, Oracle EPM, and Workday Adaptive Planning offer sophisticated modelling, forecasting, and reporting capabilities that finance teams rely on daily. But there is a question these platforms were not built to answer: of all the initiatives competing for the capital […]